DOVER, N.H. (AP) -- A New Hampshire combat veteran who served three tours in Afghanistan before dying in a motorcycle crash in North Carolina has been laid to rest.

A crowd gathered for Sunday's funeral and graveside service for Air Force Staff Sgt. Brandon Joseph Cullen-Towle in Dover, his hometown.

The 25-year-old was a member of a Special Forces Tactical Air Control Party, assigned to the 21st Special Tactics Squadron at Pope Field, N.C. He received a Purple Heart last year after injured during an attack in Afghanistan.

Sunday's funeral followed a military service in North Carolina and a memorial where glowing paper lanterns were released into the night sky over the Dover High School football field Friday night. He died Aug. 25 in a motorcycle crash in Spring Lake, N.C.